In the News

The Liberal government has concluded a deal with Davie shipyard to purchase three medium icebreakers to relieve pressure on the Canadian Coast Guard's aging fleet. Sources close to the negotiations said that between the purchase and modification phase, the agreement could be worth just under $500 million.

Radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death by an Indonesian court for ordering Islamic State group-affiliated militants to carry out attacks including the January 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.

Ontario’s doctors won’t have to tell local public-health units what shots they’ve given children starting July 1, Premier-designate Doug Ford has told them, putting off indefinitely a rule created by the Liberals that was to kick in two days after he’s sworn in.

An 86-year-old Royal Canadian Dragoons veteran is deriding the treatment he received at the emergency department of The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus this week. Retired Maj. Peter Jarvis claims he repeatedly requested blankets to keep him warm while waiting close to six hours for treatment for what was apparently a severe case of food poisoning.

Rising waters forced rescuers to suspend the search for 12 boys and their soccer coach missing for two days in a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand. The boys, aged 11-15, are believed to have entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province with their 25-year-old coach late Saturday afternoon.

The arrests of 75 people associated with Toronto's Five Point Generalz gang resulted in the seizure of 78 firearms and $1.2 million worth of drugs but experts do not believe the operation will permanently reduce crime.

Canadian border guards use a secret US anti-terror database called Tuscan. Rarely referred to publicly, Tuscan is svailable to Canadian border guards and immigration officers to help identify people who may be linked to terrorism.

Airbus Helicopters has delivered the first two of a total of six H145 helicopters to Swiss Air-Rescue Rega. These will replace Rega’s existing fleet of EC145 helicopters, which will be phased out by mid-2019. The first H145 helicopter is expected to be deployed at the Bern base in October.

At the start of this year, China banned plastic waste imports, leaving countries scrambling to fend for themselves. A new study suggests there are deep repercussions to China's new policy: By the year 2030, an estimated 111 million tonnes of plastic waste will be "displaced" and have nowhere to go.

The United States withdrew from a “hypocritical and self-serving” United Nations Human Rights Council on over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. It also comes as the United States faces intense criticism for detaining children separated from their immigrant parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Months before the 2017 mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Canada’s spy agency dropped an investigation into right-wing extremism. Convicted killer Alexandre Bissonnette followed right-wing figures online.

Monday evening, more than 200 people are thought to have crammed aboard the small, rickety vessel to make the 40-minute journey across Lake Toba – only 18 people to have been pulled from the water alive after the vessel sank. A total of 213 people were estimated to be on board the 60-person capacity ferry.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is destroying data collected from the communications of Canadians who were not considered threats, but may have been connected to terrorism suspects. The project is 70 percent complete and should be finished within months.

The magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck the area early Monday damaged buildings and left many homes without water or gas. The earthquake hit the area around Osaka, the country's second-largest city, killing four people and injuring hundreds while knocking over walls and setting off fires.

A company that provides thousands of Air Canada-branded flights annually had flawed safety-management, quality-control and maintenance systems, which helped trigger a landing-gear breakdown and tense emergency landing two years ago, a federal investigation has concluded.

After years of delays, the terrorism trial of Awso Peshdary has started in Ottawa. Peshdary has pleaded not guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating an activity for a terrorist group, and two counts of conspiring to participate or contribute to an activity of a terrorist group.

The Canada Border Services Agency wants a British Columbia man deported because it claims his Facebook posts threaten violence in support of Islamic State. At an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Monday, an official said Othman Hamdan praised and encouraged martyrdom and terrorist attacks.

Recent attacks on public gatherings have festival and event organizers in Canada working to create safe venues for their audiences. Governments must pay their share of the costs necessary to create a secure environment.

Backstopped by more than $500-million in new funding over the next five years, Ottawa’s newly released cybersecurity strategy lays out initiatives to help Canadians, business and the government better protect against cyberthreats.

The American Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a new strategy for the US border with Canada. While the "most common threat to U.S. public safety along the Northern border continues to be the bi-directional flow of illicit drugs" the DHS noted the U.S. also faces "potential terror threats...primarily from homegrown violent extremists in Canada ..."

Saskatchewan RCMP continue to investigate the collision between a truck and the Humboldt Broncos team bus that left 16 people dead and 13 injured. A collision reconstruction team and major crimes unit are working on the case.

The hiring of a U.S. firm to advise the Department of National Defence on how to improve security at its installations across the country has sparked complaints that the job could have been done for cheaper by local firms or by the military’s own police force. Details of the almost $2-million contract to Watermark, a risk management firm in Virginia, were recently released under the Access to Information law.

More than a year later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have not found or identified the people who placed sophisticated electronic eavesdropping devices around Ottawa. IMSI technology can capture cell phone conversations and data messages.

Australian authorities accuse Dan Bui Shun Jin, 55, of laundering C$850 million through casinos in that country. After a surveillance operation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested him at his temporary residence in Richmond, British Columbia's River Rock Casino.

About 10,000 civil servants who work in or near the Quebec legislature will have Thursday afternoon and Friday off work, because G7 protestors are expected to make the area unsafe. The actual summit is being held 140 kilometres away but three protests are scheduled for Quebec City.

A man arrested for attempting to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also planned to attack senior Canadian security officials visiting Jerusalem. The man was arrested in April and a gag order was lifted this week.

Bill C-211, a private member's bill passed unanimously by the House of Commons in June 2017, calls for a range of measures to assist Canadian frontline personnel with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The bill names first responders, fire fighters, military personnel, corrections officers and RCMP members but there are concerns that other professional groups should also qualify for PTSD treatment.

The Toronto Police Service fired Const. Ioan-Florin Floria on Monday, but an immediate appeal means the officer's 11 years of paid suspension will continue. He was found guilty last year of four counts of professional misconduct: two counts of discreditable conduct, and one count each of insubordination and breach of confidence.

Legal marijuana is on the way in Canada but until federal legislation is enacted it is still against the law to possess, produce, import, export, or transport marijuana. Even before legalization, police in many areas are unable to control illegal sale and distribution networks due to lack of resources.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has received a special report about his controversial India trip from a national security committee of Parliament. The report has six recommendations dealing allegations of foreign interference, security risks and use of intelligence.

A report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the Chinese government has influenced every level of New Zealand society and the situation has reached a “critical” stage. Based on reports delivered to an academic workshop, the report does not reflect the agency's official views.

An independent review of the Calgary Police Service's use of force makes 65 recommendations, including more on-the-job training, faster reviews of fatal confrontations and better understanding of mental illness.

Ontario Provincial Police arrested three men in connection with the seizure of more $1.3-million in unstamped tobacco last week after one of two rental trucks in a convoy went off the 401 highway near Morrisburg.

Hackers may have the confidential information of as many as 90,000 Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce customers after what appeared to be the first big cyber attack on this country's financial institutions.

As May turns into June, the B.C. Wildfire Service has already been in action on 227 fires in the current fire season. A fire about 20 square kilometres in size is near Allie Lake, about 55 kilometres northwest of Kamloops has forced more than a dozen of people to evacuate their properties.

A former official at the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service is alarmed at the involvement of Chinese telecommunications company Huawei with Canadian universities to acquire 5G wireless technology. The government is being asked to study the security threat and economic cost of transferring Canadian intellectual property.

Almost 900 people have been evacuated from two fire-threatened eastern Manitoba First Nations, with another 200 expected to touch down in Winnipeg by the end of Thursday, as a 20,000-hectare fire continues to burn toward the communities of Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says officials will attempt to correct misinformation being circulated in New York state offering instructions to asylum seekers on how to illegally cross the border into Canada.

Leaflets with the logo of an American organization called Plattsburgh Cares, a refugee support organization, tell asylum seekers that the Canadian border at Roxham Rd. in Quebec is an "irregular unofficial crossing.” The leaflet provides advice on how to enter Canada "irregularly."

RCMP officials in Alberta say new crime reduction units (CRU) are succeeding. During the CRU's first months, officers have made 263 arrests and laid 1,227 charges. The ratio of charges to arrests shows the CRU units are targeting repeat offenders.

A private jet broke in half as it crashed off the end of a runway as it came into land in Honduras. The Gulfstream jet, which was traveling from Austin, Texas, skidded out of control at the capital's international airport.

Citing national security reasons, the federal government has blocked the sale of Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc. to China's CCCC International Holding Ltd. The controversial deal would have been worth $1.5 billion.

Canadian police officers need more time to prepare to detect drug use before marijuana is legalized. Sergeant David Caron with Guelph Police Traffic Services says training is costly and time-consuming but necessary.

The federal cabinet is blocking the takeover of Canada's Aecon Group Inc. by a Chinese government-owned company. Two former directors of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service publicly opposed the sale.

White plumes of acid and extremely fine shards of glass billowed into the sky over Hawaii as molten rock from Kilauea volcano poured into the ocean, creating yet another hazard from an eruption that began more than two weeks ago: a toxic steam cloud. Authorities warned the public to stay away from the toxic steam cloud, which is formed by a chemical reaction when lava touches seawater.

The North American Securities Administrators Association announced a series of probes by state and regional regulatory authorities from the US and Canada. The actions are an effort to restrict fraudulent initial coin offerings and crypto-related investment products. Dubbed “Operation Cryptosweep,” about 70 investigations have been initiated by NASAA members from over 40 jurisdictions in the US and Canada.

Othman Hamdan, a British Columbia man facing deportation over allegations of promoting terrorism claims that false accusations have caused him post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Acquitted of terrorism-related charges last September, immigration authorities determined he poses a danger to the public.

A Canadian aviation expert and former airplane crash investigator says he can state with "100 per cent certainty" that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was intentionally ditched in the ocean by one of the pilots in an act of murder-suicide.

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a terror suspect's bid to stave off the federal government's effort to deport him on security grounds. The government is trying to remove Mohamed Mahjoub, 58, using a national security certificate, claiming he was a high-ranking member of an Islamic terrorist organization.

A letter signed by the previously unknown Islamic Revolutionary Force claims the group has destroyed beaches in Ontario's Muskoka region and threatens other attacks. The group says it used snowmobiles to destroy the beaches over the winter. The Ontario Provincial Police is investigating.

Canada is reforming its national security laws and institutions. The success of all the initiatives depends on the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act which clarifies how Canadian government departments exchange sensitive information.

The Trudeau government is shifting the G7 summit away from its traditional Africa outreach in favour of a session on ocean sustainability that will include the world’s largest political and financial organizations.

Monday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war there, and was part of a high-stakes campaign by Gaza's Hamas rulers to break a decade-long border blockade. Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians, most by gunfire, and injured more than 2,700 on Monday, Gaza Health Ministry said.

Michelle Rempel, Conservative immigration critic, tweeted recently that the media was finally writing about “illegal border crossings” after she had been raising it for a year. The problem is that several recurring myths are shaping much of the coverage.

The Canadian Armed Forces, in support of Public Safety Canada, is deploying approximately 60 members to assist the Province of New Brunswick following their request for federal assistance. Elements of 4 Engineer Support Regiment from 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown deployed to support Provincial authorities. This will enable those authorities to complete assessments and prioritize further relief work and repairs.

Despite these incontrovertible facts, palliative care is inadequately funded in the Ottawa region and, indeed, in the province of Ontario. Patients who are suffering and reaching the end of their lives from any disease other than cancer are not able to access a palliative care clinic because none exists.

Canada will use its presidency of the G7 to try to persuade the world’s richest and most industrialized countries to adopt ambitious goals for plastics recycling and waste reduction. “We are looking at a zero-plastics-waste charter,” Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said from Cancun, Mexico.

In a closed-door meeting, Renfrew town council adopted rules setting the age limit for the fire chief at 60, which is the same limit the province set years earlier for frontline firefighters. The former fire chief, 61-year-old Guy Longtin, is fighting back against a move to push him into retirement with a legal fight launched Wednesday.

The Conservative opposition wants to know why the government has not arrested a man in Toronto who claims to be a returned ISIS fighter. It is a crime to travel abroad to participate in terrorism, and the government admits about 60 people have returned to Canada after joining terrorist groups abroad.

This Global News report shows how easily Google exposed employees of CSIS through a tool developed to make navigation easier. The news team was able to identify vehicles in the parking lot and then find home addresses of two CSIS employees using google street view.

Canada received over 50,000 asylum applications in 2017 – a 200% increase over the previous year. Nearly half of these claimants crossed illegally into Canada to make their claim. Or, as the Liberals like to say, they crossed “irregularly.” So far in 2018, things have gotten significantly worse.

A CBC News investigation showed that most people killed in police encounters in Canada since 2000 were mentally ill or addicted. A study shows that training at Ontario Police College on deescalation is inconsistent and “superficial.”